Double award for Continental tyres made from dandelion rubber

The Urban Taraxagum bicycle tyre from Continental has won the Red Dot Design award.

It was also recently awarded the E-Bike Design and Innovation Award in the Sustainability and Green category by the magazine Focus E-Bike.

While the Red Dot Award is awarded for the design of the tread of the tyre, which is based on the cell shape of the dandelion, Focus E-Bike has commended the sustainability of rubber extraction from dandelions.

“We are delighted about the two awards,” said Thomas Falke, head of Continental’s business unit Two-Wheel Tyres. “They reflect the particularly successful design and sustainability of our ‘Urban Taraxagum’ bicycle tyre. In this way, our unique product made in Korbach is actively contributing to environmentally-friendly mobility and thus to greater sustainability.”

Claus Petschick, head of sustainability in Continental’s Tyres business area, added: “Our dandelion rubber tyres are an important part of our extensive sustainability activities and of the ambitious goal of making our products and production processes as well as our research and development even more sustainable. Our efforts to cease importing the important rubber material from the tropics, and instead to manufacture it as close as possible to our tyre plants, will make a significant contribution.”

Earlier this year, the ‘Dandelion Bicycle Tyre’ was recognised with the IF Taipei Cycle d&i Gold Award and last year with the sustainability award from the e-bike manufacturer Accell Group. In the future, Continental’s long-term Taraxagum project will be to supply natural rubber from dandelion plants, which can be used for the production of two-wheel, passenger car or commercial vehicle tyres as well as other vehicle parts made of natural rubber.

Continental has already produced the first test tyres for passenger cars and trucks. The Urban Taraxagum bicycle tyre has been produced in the Continental bicycle tyre plant in Korbach in the German state of Hesse for two years and is available both in-store and online. Further information on the project can be found here.

Continental Reifen Deutschland GmbH would like to thank the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture for their support based on a decision of the German Bundestag, and the European Union for its support from the operational programme of the European Regional Development Fund in the funding period 2014-2020.

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